Police officers’ implicit theories of youth offending
| Published date | 01 March 2020 |
| Date | 01 March 2020 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/0004865819854498 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Article
Australian & New Zealand Journal of
Police officers’ implicit
Criminology
2020, Vol. 53(1) 8–24
!
theories of youth offending
The Author(s) 2019
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DOI: 10.1177/0004865819854498
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Kelly Richards
Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia
Abstract
How police understand youth offending at least partly informs their responses to it. It is
therefore vital to document police implicit theories about youth offending. However, little
previous research has examined this topic. This article addresses this gap by examining police
implicit theories about youth crime and how it ought to be addressed. Using social control
theory as an analytic framework, it critically examines 41 semi-structured qualitative inter-
views with police undertaken for a larger study in Queensland, Australia. A number of
implications stem from the analysis, not the least of which is the disjuncture between
police implicit theories of youth offending, and the localised, historicised and contextual
realities of young people’s – especially marginalised young people’s – offending behaviour.
Keywords
Implicit theories, police, social control theory, young people, youth offending
Date received: 27 September 2018; accepted: 13 May 2019
Introduction
Police culture commonly involves police holding unfavourable views of citizens, and an
‘us and them’ mentality (Chan, 1997; Paoline & Terrill, 2005). While the relationship(s)
between police culture and police attitudes or beliefs (i.e. between the collective and the
individual) may be difficult to demarcate (Crank, 2004), policing occupational culture can
inform and support the stereotyping of particular groups in the community, as Chan’s
(1997) work on policing in the Australian context illustrates. Furthermore, police atti-
tudes (i.e. alignment with a dominant police culture) can influence police behaviours
(Paoline & Terrill, 2005). Understanding the way(s) police ‘think’ (Reiner, 2010;
Corresponding author:
Kelly Richards, Queensland University of Technology, Level 5, X Block, Gardens Point campus, Brisbane, Queensland
4001, Australia.
Email: k1.richards@qut.edu.au
Richards
9
Souhami, 2007, p. 81) – and especially, how they think about (alleged) offenders – is
therefore vital. This is particularly critical in relation to young people, over whom police
exercise enormous discretion, and in relation to whom police attitudes have been found to
inform decision-making (Marinos & Innocenti, 2008; McAra & McVie, 2005).
In general terms, the very limited research indicates that police view young people as
lacking morals, values and respect for authority figures (Bolzan, 2003; Drury &
Dennison, 2002; White, 1992). Police identify certain groups of young people, such as
homeless and Indigenous young people (White, 1992), ethnic minority young people
(Rabois & Haaga, 2002) and young women, as particularly problematic. For example,
in Bolzan’s (2003, p. 52) study, police singled out young teenage girls as ‘real bitches’.
Drury and Dennison (2002, p. 70) likewise found that while police perceived young men
to be the most poorly behaved overall, they characterised young women as more argu-
mentative than boys – or in one officer’s words, ‘far more mouthy and noisy’.
Police adopt a range of explanations for what they consider young people’s negative
traits, typically considering such traits as resulting from poor parenting and/or familial
and social disintegration (Bolzan, 2003; White, 1992). There have been even fewer stud-
ies that have examined more specifically police implicit theories (ITs), or the ‘lay theories
that individuals develop . . . in order to understand and explain their social world’ (Mann
& Hollin, 2007, p. 8; see further McCartan, 2010; O´ Ciardha & Gannon, 2012). Indeed,
only two studies of police ITs could be located by a thorough search of relevant social
science databases: Cicourel (1968) and Westley (1970).
Cicourel’s (1968) ethnographic study of two police and probation departments in
California found that police and probation officers ascribe a range of explanations to
youth offending. For example, in the case of one young person, explanations varied
from ‘[he] had a problem’ to ‘[he] just needs a boot in the ass’ (Cicourel, 1968, p. 259).
Cicourel’s (1968) work provides an insight into police ITs in relation to individual
offenders rather than offenders as a group.
In contrast, Westley’s (1970, pp. 65–67) case study of an (unnamed) urban police
station in America involved asking police the question ‘What kind of person is a crim-
inal?’ Officers’ responses revealed a wide range of ITs among police:
They suggested that criminals ‘were kicked around as children’ (poor family socialization
theory); that criminals ‘got involved with a bunch of punks’ (differential association
theory); that criminals did ‘not belong to any church or any other organization or have
anyone to tell them what the truth is’ (social disorganization theory) . . . [and] . . . that they
were ‘uneducated, unintelligent, drunkards and mental’. (versions of personality and bio-
logical pathology theories) (Box, 1981, pp. 170–171)
As noted above, understanding police ITs is critical, not only because these inform how
police respond to (alleged) offenders, but because ITs may be detrimental if police
adhere to them and thus (consciously or unconsciously) resist the implementation of
reforms that challenge their ITs; police ITs thus have implications for both their indi-
vidual and collective actions.
This study begins to address this gap by presenting an analysis of the ITs that police
hold about youth offending in particular. The larger study for which police were
10
Australian & New Zealand Journal of Criminology 53(1)
interviewed (Cross, Dwyer, & Richards, 2015) sought to document the youth crime
prevention impacts of Police–Citizens Youth Clubs (PCYCs) in Queensland,
Australia. In discussing this broader topic, police interviewed for the study provided
rich insights into their ITs of youth offending and how youth crime should be addressed.
Based on a thematic analysis of the interviews undertaken with police (n ¼ 41) for the
larger study, this article argues that police participants’ overriding ITs of youth offend-
ing align closely with social control theory (SCT).
Social control theory
There are links between explicit and ITs, with individuals’ ITs both shaped by, and
shaping, media representations and professional knowledge (Box, 1981; Hardiker &
Webb, 1979; McCartan, 2010). The explicit theory that forms the analytical framework
of the current study is SCT. The central premise of SCT reflects the Hobbesian view of
human nature: that humans are inherently self-interested and will commit crime if not
sufficiently constrained (Hirschi, 1969). In contrast to most theories, which ask why
people commit crime (Hirschi, 1986; Kornhauser, 1978), it put forward a theory about
what prevents individuals from doing so (Hirschi, 1969, 1986). Building on Toby’s
(1957) concept of ‘stakes in conformity’, Hirschi (1969) argued that individuals are
less likely to choose to offend if they have an investment in conventional society.
Conversely, individuals may turn to crime if their bonds with society are weak or
broken (Hirschi, 1969). Hirschi (1969) identified four ways in which individuals develop
and maintain a significant investment in conventional society: attachment, commitment,
involvement and belief (see Kornhauser, 1978).
Attachment refers to the development of affection, respect and/or sensitivity towards
others, including the opinions of others (Han, Kim, & Lee, 2016; Hirschi, 1969): ‘to the
extent that a person is not sensitive to the thoughts, feelings and expectations of con-
ventional others, i.e. not attached, then the person remains free to deviate’ (Box, 1981,
p. 123). Commitment refers to a person’s adherence to conventional social goals such as
educational or career achievement:
The person invests time, energy, himself, in a certain line of activity – say, getting an
education . . .. Whenever he considers deviant behavior, he must consider the cost of this
deviant behavior, the risk he runs of losing the investment he has made in conventional
behavior. (Hirschi, 1969, p. 20)
The concept of involvement is premised on the notion that ‘idle hands are the devil’s
workshop’ (Hirschi, 1969, p. 22). It posits that keeping busy by taking part in conven-
tional activities (school, work, sporting activities) inhibits opportunities for individuals
to commit crime: ‘The person involved in conventional activities is tied to appointments,
deadlines, working hours, plans, and the like, so the opportunity to commit deviant acts
rarely arises’ (Hirschi, 1969, p. 22). Finally, belief refers to the perceived legitimacy of
the law – that is, the extent to which people believe they should obey the law. A strong
belief in the ‘rightness’ of the law, and its enforcers (e.g. police), should constrain
individuals’ natural tendencies to break the law (Hirschi, 1969).
Richards
11
According to SCT, these four elements of social bonding need to be instilled in young
people in particular in order to prevent crime (Donner, Maskaly, & Fridell, 2016;
Han et al., 2016; Hirschi, 1969). Thus, SCT posits both an explanation of youth offend-
ing (i.e. their social bonds are broken) and what ought to be done about it (i.e. enhance
young people’s social bonds via attachment, commitment, involvement and belief).
Although SCT was to some extent abandoned...
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